Tag Archives: c.c. chapman

I just received the first 10 chapters of J.C. Hutchins newly published thriller, The 7th Son: Descent, in a free, down-loadable “special edition” pdf. It was sent to me courtesy of CC Chapman’s podcast Managing the Gray. I say newly published, because the novel has been around for awhile.

Hutchins originally released it as a serialized podcast, also for free. From those humble beginnings the story’s fan base spread through online word-of-mouth until it eventually caught the attention of a “real” publisher, St. Martin’s Press. It is “now in bookstores everywhere,” as they say.

Hutchins’ web site, J.C. Hutchins Thriller Novelist, is highly interactive, providing links and downloads, updating fans on the novel’s progress — e.g. Amazon ratings, recent reviews and the like — and even has a section called “evangelize,” where fans will soon find tools for spreading further world of mouth.

It’s a wonderful case study in how online social connections can build a groundswell of support for an aspiring novelist’s work that eventually leads to publication by a recognized institution of the trade with access to an even wider audience. Interesting that despite everyone talking about the democratization of content and the wisdom of the crowd, the ultimate “legitimization” of a work of fiction, or for that matter non-fiction, still seems to be if it is picked up by an “old media” publisher and gets reviewed by the likes of The New York Times and Publishers Weekly. Why is that? Deep down inside, do we still rely on the official arbiters of literature to tell us if something is good or not?

Despite the fact that Hutchins can now earn money on his work in book form, he continues to offer it for free as a podcast or pdf. I admire his generosity and idealism, and I hope, for the sake of his bank account, that there will be enough readers who are willing to spend $14,99 to read the novel in what for many is still the most enjoyable format of all, words on a printed page between two covers of a book.

The actual statement they ticked the box on was “industry buzz words most tired of hearing.” At the top of the list were web 2.0, social networking, social media and blog. The findings come from a survey conducted for the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) by Anderson Analytics. Faced with recession in 2009, “Marketing executives are going back to basics this year, putting renewed focus on satisfying and retaining customers and investing in research and insights,” according to an article in Marketing Vox reporting on the study.

Fear is a terrible thing. It paralyzes you, and blinds you to strategies and tactics that could be precisely what your company needs to help you weather the current economic storm. CC Chapman sums it up elegantly in this video segment. In today’s economic environment, you need to be even more in touch with your consumers. Now more than ever, you should engage and energize them to be even stronger brand advocates in the online communities where people share information, experiences and recommendations about products. In tough times, consumers will turn to their peers even more to help them make wise purchase decisions. That’s precisely where social media can help, by ensuring you are continuously in touch with how people are feeling about your products, addressing questions and concerns, and building trust and loyalty among your brand enthusiasts so they continue to recommend you to others.

I first became aware of this debate on an episode of C.C. Chapman’s podcast Managing the Gray. C.C. expressed his reservation about being called a social media “expert.” I can’t remember all the details, but I believe one of the points C.C. made was that the field of social media was so new, nobody could lay claim to the title of expert.

Shel Holtz subsequently chimed in with a different opinion. He asked why anyone would want to hire you if you weren’t an expert? The title didn’t necessarily mean that you knew everything about a particular topic, merely that you had acquired a good deal of knowledge to the extent that others could benefit from your “expertise.” Through continued study, thought and action you deepened your knowledge and experience further and in so doing advanced the discipline. On that basis, Shel concluded, C.C. absolutely deserved to call himself a social media expert and should wear that badge proudly.

Despite Shel’s logical argument, there was still something about that word that made C.C. feel uncomfortable. Recently, another podcaster, I think it was Mitch Joel (Six Pixels of Separation) or Heidi Miller (Diary of a Shameless Self-Promoter) — sorry guys, I honestly can’t remember which one of you it was — also expressed reluctance to use the term to describe bloggers and podcasters who advise and comment on social media, saying that generally we don’t like to call ourselves that.

But why not? Is this false modesty? Or is there something more to it? I’m not sure, but I gave it some thought and came up with a few reasons why some of us might still shirk at being called social media experts.

Social media is indeed new. There isn’t a whole lot of best (or worst) practice upon which we can base our opinions and recommendations. What we normally think of as “expert opinion” derives from a depth and breadth of experience on a subject that in the case of social media simply isn’t there yet.

Related to this is the ROI question. If we’re talking about social media in the marketing and communications context, a basic component of expertise will be defined by clients as the ability to advise them on what kind of social media initiatives will bring the best return on investment. The parameters of social media ROI and tools for measuring have yet to be adequately defined. Until they are, we will lack a key pillar upon which we can claim expertise.

The landscape changes so fast. Of course, all fields of knowledge continually develop and change, but that doesn’t stop them from having their experts. Nevertheless, I think it’s safe to say that there are few things that evolve as quickly, as dramatically, and within such short time frames, as social media. It’s hard just to keep up and understand the implications of these changes, much less build a foundation of knowledge and experience that one would traditionally need in order to be considered an expert.

You can’t be an expert in something as broad and complex as social media. In a previous life, I studied musicology. A musicologist might be an expert on renaissance music, or ethnic music, or jazz, but he or she can’t be an expert on all aspects of music. Social media comprises everything from communities, to corporate blogs, to consumer rating sites — and a whole lot more. Perhaps there’s just too much to social media to say you’re an expert on the entire spectrum of it.

When the wisdom is in the crowd, who’s an expert? The phenomenon of the wiki and the power of the community is based on the notion that true understanding comes by listening to a range of opinions, interpretations and experiences from different individuals, rather than through the filter of expert opinion . The wisdom of the crowd is at the heart of what makes so much of social media so potent. What is the role of the expert in an online, interconnected world where we can learn so much that is meaningful from the experiences of many different people in situations like ours rather than from traditional experts?

What’s your take on this? Are you comfortable being called a social media expert? Whom do you consider to be today’s true social media experts?